1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to display cartons and a blank therefor; more especially the invention is concerned with an end-loading carton having a display opening to permit display of the contents, and a blank therefor. The invention is more particularly concerned with such cartons for carrying beverage containers including bottles and cans and having an integral carrying handle, and which can be readily stacked in use, one on top of the other.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Cartons are widely used for the shipment, storage and sale of containerized beverages, such as beer. One type of carton is top loaded and includes a sealed top for shipment. A disadvantage of top loading is that the machinery handling the containers, such as bottles, requires both a sideways and a downward movement.
End loading has become popular because the containers can be pushed into the carton from the side in one movement, as the carton passes along a conveyor.
It is usual to provide a handle or other means whereby such a carton can be carried; it is also usual particularly in cartons intended for bottles to include a central vertically disposed partition in the carton.
End-loading cartons with these basic desirable features are described in Canadian Pat. Nos. 884,165; 911,389; 920,531 and 971,137. Prior end-loading cartons such as those of the aforementioned patents suffer the disadvantage that the contents of the carton is fully enclosed so that the contents cannot be displayed to promote the sale thereof. Further such cartons either have handles which project outwardly from the top of the carton thereby rendering it impossible to efficiently stack the cartons, or a complicated retractable handle is employed.
In Canadian Pat. No. 884,165 the handle and partition are formed separately from the carton walls thus requiring two separate blanks, and the handle is retractable. In Canadian Pat. No. 911,389 the partition is formed separately from the carton and is set up between the bottles prior to loading and then moved into the casing along with the bottles.
Cartons, particularly cartons for bottled beer which permit display of the contents are known, these cartons are generally known in the trade as basket carriers. Such cartons permit the display of attractively presented products which are found to appeal to the consumer, for example, bottles of beer in which the bottle necks are attractively decorated, for example, with gold foil and neck labels to enhance the appearance.
European beer products displayed in this manner have proved to be highly successful in the North American market.
The combination of an attractive design on the carton walls and the display of attractively decorated bottles is found to be highly important in promoting North American beers in competition with such European imports.